Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

Reuters Staff

5 Min Read

March 22 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:

** Greece’s Piraeus Bank struck a deal on Friday to take over the Greek branches of Cyprus’s troubled banks in what a source close to the matter said involved the transfer of 17 billion euros of loans and 14 billion euros of deposits.

** Private equity firms are joining forces in the auction of BMC Software Inc, four people familiar with the matter said, making it more likely that the business software maker will be taken private in a deal that will top $6 billion.

** Belgian financial group KBC said it had sold its 16.17 percent stake in Polish group Bank Zachodni WBK at 245 Polish zloty ($75.64) per share to institutional investors.

** First Quantum Minerals said on Friday it had won enough shareholder support to take over Inmet Mining, winning a C$5.1 billion hostile battle for control of one of the world’s largest untapped copper deposits.

** Telecoms group Vimpelcom has hired UBS to arrange a sale of its Canadian unit Wind Mobile, with initial bids seen valuing the firm at between $500 million and $1 billion, Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

** Swiss financial services software provider Temenos said it had bought U.S-based compliance technology company TriNovus, adding 800 institutional clients to its U.S. customer base and expanding its local expertise and product range.

** Eike Batista, the controlling shareholder of Brazilian power producer MPX Energia SA, is in talks to sell a stake to Germany’s E.ON SE as he moves to fund investment plans and bolster the company’s capital position.

** Royal Bank of Scotland is likely to receive up to six bid proposals for the 315 branches it has been ordered to sell ahead of a midnight deadline on Thursday, sources familiar with the sale process said.

** Wausau Paper Corp said it intends to sell its specialty paper business to funds controlled by private equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP for about $130 million in cash, following pressure from activist investor Starboard Value LP.

** Central European Distribution Corp, a leading vodka producer that missed a debt payment last week, received a restructuring plan offering $280 million in cash, which would turn the equity over to a group led by a Russian investor.

** State-led utility Eletrobras is preparing to sell distributors in northeast Brazil, a government source said on Thursday, as the company downsizes to deal with the lower power rates championed by President Dilma Rousseff.

** Austrian man-made fibres group Lenzing said it had received several binding offers for its plastics unit, which had 109 million euros ($141 million) in sales in 2012.

** Austria’s Raiffeisen Zentralbank has decided to sell its 11.2 percent stake in credit card company Paylife, it said on Friday, paving the way for Swiss exchange operator SIX to take over the business. Banks have not disclosed financial terms for the sale, which a newspaper reported was worth nearly 100 million euros ($129 million) for all of Paylife.

** Family-owned Tamini Group, one of Italy’s biggest manufacturers of transformers for power stations and industrial appliances, has mandated banks including Intesa Sanpaolo’s investment bank unit Banca IMI and Lazard to find a buyer, a source close to the matter said on Thursday.

** An Apollo Global Management LLC fund said it would buy Spanish bank Bankia SA’s auto and consumer loan unit, raising the private equity firm’s investment in Spain to more than 1 billion euros in the last two years. The terms of the deal, expected to close in four months, were not disclosed.

** Austria’s Immofinanz said it was bidding for three property portfolios in Germany after pulling out of a race to buy BayernLB’s German residential property unit.

** British fund manager Schroders said it was in talks to buy smaller rival Cazenove Capital, raising the prospect of a marriage between two of London’s oldest names.

** Greece has agreed on a deal for the takeover of local units of stricken Cypriot banks, the two nations said, helping shield Greek banks from the fallout of the island’s crisis and allowing Cyprus to shrink its bloated banking sector.

** Kabel Deutschland has filed an appeal against a decision by Germany’s competition regulator to block a planned purchase of smaller rival Tele Columbus.

** Hungary’s oil and gas group MOL has signed a letter of intent to sell its 51 percent stake in gas storage company MMBF to the Hungarian government, the company said on Friday.

** The Bank of Italy on Friday transferred its 4.5 percent stake in insurer Generali to Italy’s state-controlled fund Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI), in exchange for shares in FSI.